Social consequences of assertion, aggression, passive aggression, and submission: Situational and dispositional determinants

Abstract

This study examined self-reported compliance, anger, and sympathy with assertive, aggressive, passive aggressive, and submissive requests, as well as situational and dispositional determinants of subjects' responses to the four forms of requests. Situations varied in degree of sacrifice and reasonableness of the request. Male and female undergraduates responded to 16 vignettes (4 situations× 4 modes of request made by a male or female) and then completed personality scales. Analyses of variance for compliance, anger, and sympathy each yielded significant main effects for mode of request and for situation. Significant Mode of Request × Situation interactions indicated that assertion tended to produce positive social consequences in reasonable request situations, direct aggression elicited predominantly negative responses, passive aggression produced less negative responses in reasonable request situations, and submission produced predominantly positive responses. There were different sets of dispositional predictors for compliance, anger, and sympathy in response to each mode of request.